Friday, March 16, 2012

How have I been exercising lately?

Some of you may be curious abut my workout regimen, now that I'm in a weight-loss process. Especially given the fact that I was diligently recording my Jillian Michaels workouts last year.

Well, I can't do as many of those videos these days, because of our neighbor downstairs. I may speak on that in a separate blog post later, but we are so annoyed with her, it's hard to put it into words (hint: she's a nurse that thinks that everyone else should be quiet during the day while she's sleeping). So, once a week or so, Curtis and I look out the window, see that her car is gone, and put in a video.

I actually just got a new JM Video - Kickbox Fastfix. Curtis wasn't crazy about the kickboxing, but I loved the fact that it is only 20 minutes (from warmup to cooldown), and gets you a decent sweat. Each workout on the video focuses on a muscle area, one lower body, one upper body, and one abs. I've only done the abs so far but am looking forward to trying the other workouts, tomorrow perhaps.

The other days of the week, we go to the gym.

Thankfully, our gym has 5 cardio machines, and it isn't hard to get a free treadmill, which is both of our workout of choice for the moment. I am focusing on decreasing my 2 mile time. I try to go 4-5 days a week (this week I went Monday-Wednesday, and tonight (Friday), and plan to go a lot more while Curtis is away).

I don't exactly remember where I started, generally anything under 28 minutes (for two miles) I'm happy with. But the last two times I attempted it I was able to get just over 25 minutes, or 12:30/mi. I'm quite pleased with that. I'll likely try to keep under that time, and then do another push in a few weeks after I've lost a little more weight. Running has always been something difficult for me, and it's nice to have a good routine and something that I now look forward to. I have ideas of a half marathon next year on the horizon, but right now I really need to focus on getting into a healthy weight range, and I still have a long way to go.

The other issue is injury management and prevention. I'm trying to go easy on the treadmill because often it doesn't take long for things to go wrong. I'm a little concerned about shin splints, as well as my right Achilles ankle. Tonight for example I walked the two miles instead of running/walking them, so that I can do some speed over the weekend hopefully without straining it. I don't mind the daily aches and pains (well, I do actually, but the alternative of not exercising isn't great either), but I've been lucky to avoid major injury so far and I'd like that to continue while I'm losing weight, since exercising is a crucial physical and emotional component of my life.

I'm also considering joining a local crossfit gym for a segment of my weight loss. It's expensive, and I think if I do it I'd only commit to 6 weeks at first, it's open Monday-Friday for classes that I can go to after work. I'm trying to decide when to start, probably mid-April at the latest, otherwise I'll have to wait until after summer, since I have a lot of after-work summer events at the firm this summer. But it is something that I have at the back of my mind. Right now it's just nice to regain a running stride and have my clothes fit better.

I weigh-in tomorrow morning and am hoping for a good loss! Will update my sidebar after I find out.